The present invention relates to parting seals and sealing structures of parting portions. Seal parts of the parting seals close the parting portions between rear ends of front doors and front ends of rear doors. The seal parts are integrally molded with assembly parts which are assembled on the rear doors of four-door sedans or the like.
As shown in FIG. 6 to FIG. 9, sealing structures from an inner-cabin side for closing and sealing a parting portion between a rear end of a front door 2 and a front end of a rear door 1 of four-door sedans or the like have been disclosed. The sealing structures aim at preventing entrance of air and resultant noise caused by the air and improving appearance (see, for example, Japanese unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-177266).
The Japanese unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-177266 discloses that a seal lip 40 has a substantially tongue-shaped cross section and closes the parting portion. A bending point 200 is provided on a base root 41b side of the seal lip 40 so that, when high pressure water 700 splashes the seal lip 40 while spraying water for washing automobiles or the like, the seal lip 40 is curved toward the inner-cabin side and a top end 41a of the seal lip 40 makes elastic contact with a center pillar 4 as a body panel. With this configuration, a direction of high pressure water 700, which splashes the parting portion from an outer-cabin side is forcibly re-directed at a desired angle with respect to the direction of high pressure water 700 when high pressure water 700 splashes the seal lip 40. This configuration prevents high pressure water 700 from directly hitting a front side weather strip 20, operatively coupled on the front door 2, and performs the above-mentioned effects. The seal lip 40 is disposed at an upper part of a front end of a rear side weather strip 10, which is operatively coupled on a peripheral edge of the rear door 1, and extends downward.
A top end 41a of the seal lip 40 may: smoothly extend from a base root 41b and taper off as shown in FIG. 8; or be bent toward an outer-cabin side as shown in FIG. 9.
With this configuration, the seal lip 40 makes elastic contact with the center pillar 4 and stably guides high pressure water 700 in a fixed direction, in which the front side weather strip 20 is not directly hit by high pressure water 700, without fluttering in an outer and inner cabin side direction like a flexible plate. This configuration prevents high pressure water 700 from entering the inner-cabin side from the space between the front side weather strip 20 and the center pillar 4, thereby preventing water leak.
Unfortunately, however, the above-described configuration requires that the seal lip 40 be curved toward the inner-cabin side and make elastic contact with the center pillar 4, when high pressure water 700 splashes the seal lip 40. That is, when a distance is long between a surface of the center pillar 4 and a surface of the rear door 1 or the front door 2, the above-described sealing structure is not adaptable for the following reasons. The seal lip 40, with a size sufficient for closing the parting portion from the inner-cabin side, has to be longer and larger for making elastic contact with the center pillar 4. The resultant seal lip 40, which is longer and larger in size, has a harmful influence on opening and closing the door and makes the noise by the air even worse.
Also, closing the parting portions by means of hollow seal parts, not the seal lip 40 having the substantially tongue-shaped cross section, has been known (see, for example, Japanese unexamined Patent Publication No. H05-270261). This configuration also requires that the hollow seal parts make elastic contact with the center pillars. Accordingly, when the distance is long between the surface of the door and the surface of the center pillar 4, this configuration is not adaptable.
In the Japanese unexamined Patent Publication No. H05-270261, weather strips are operatively coupled on automobile bodies which do not move, not on the doors which move. In such a case, it is preferable that the weather strips are firmly fixed without shifting. Accordingly, cores in the weather strips are extended to top ends of the hollow seal parts. But the weather strips with the cores increase weight and costs.
Other sealing structures have been disclosed, which are adaptable even in case the distance is long between the surface of the door and the surface of the body panel, in which the hollow seal parts close the parting portions, and the hollow seal parts do not make elastic contact with the body panels when high pressure water 700 splashes the hollow seal parts (see, for example, Japanese examined Patent Publication No. 4490159).
Unfortunately, however, in the Japanese examined Patent Publication No. 4490159, an installation base member is molded by bending, and the hollow seal member is pressed against the outer-cabin side (door side) by means of elasticity for preventing the weather strip from straying. In this structure, when high pressure water 700 splashes the hollow seal part from the outer-cabin side, the hollow seal part as well as the installation base member curves or bends and moves toward the inner-cabin side as an opposite side.
Accordingly, high pressure water 700, which splashes the parting portion, may advance straightly in a diagonally frontward direction, directly hit the front side weather strip, enter the inner-cabin side from the space between the front side weather strip and the center pillar and cause water leak.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide the parting seals and the sealing structures of the parting portions, capable of controlling water leak by high pressure water which splashes the parting portions, even in case the distance is long between the doors and the body panels.